Scotland
Hoy
A 137-metre sandstone stack stands alone in the Atlantic, defying every storm for four hundred years.
The Old Man of Hoy stands 137 metres tall and alone in the sea off Orkney — a sandstone pillar that loses rock to every storm and will not stand forever. The walk to reach it crosses moorland so empty the only landmarks are your own footprints and the growing silhouette of the stack against the sky.
Hoy is the second-largest of the Orkney Islands and by far the most dramatic — its hills and cliffs a stark contrast to Orkney's characteristic flatness. The Old Man of Hoy, a sandstone sea stack first climbed in 1966 in a live BBC broadcast, is the tallest in Britain and one of the most iconic rock formations in Scotland. Rackwick Bay, on the island's west coast, has a beach composed entirely of wave-rounded red sandstone boulders the size of footballs. The Dwarfie Stane, a 5,000-year-old tomb carved into a single block of sandstone, is unique in Britain — the only rock-cut tomb in northern Europe.
Solo
The walk to the Old Man across Hoy's empty moorland, with the stack growing larger with every step — this is solo walking at its most elemental.
Friends
The moorland crossing, the stack reveal, and the boulder beach at Rackwick create a group walk that builds anticipation across miles of emptiness.
- The Old Man of Hoy stands 137 metres tall — a sandstone sea stack that loses rock to every storm.
- The walk to the Old Man crosses moorland so empty the only landmarks are your own footprints.
- Rackwick Bay's beach is made entirely of wave-rounded red sandstone boulders the size of footballs.
- The Dwarfie Stane is a 5,000-year-old tomb carved into a single block of sandstone — unique in Britain.
The Beneth'ill Cafe in Longhope: homebaking and soups in a converted croft with Scapa Flow views.
Self-catering on Hoy means shopping in Stromness — the island's food is what you carry across on the ferry.
Queenstown
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Sete Cidades
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Silverton
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A narrow-gauge steam train delivers you to a mining ghost town at 9,318 feet.
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Edinburgh Old Town
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Basalt pinnacles erupt from cloud like the ruins of a planet still cooling.
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Salt-blasted cathedral ruins stand sentinel where golf was born on ancient windswept links.
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A valley so haunted by massacre the mountains themselves seem to mourn in low cloud.